Nokia has allegedly made a new application for a patent that would see tattoos alerting people that they’re getting calls. Yes, really.

Tattoos, good. Nokia, good. Phone calls, good. But all three combined?! Hmm we’re not quite so sure. According to Dvice, Nokia has applied for a patent that would see people have demagnetised ink painted onto their skin as a way to be more personally alerted that they’re getting a call. Bear with us here. The ink becomes re-magnetised when it picks up on magnetic changes in the air and signals from your phone, so technically your ‘tattoo’ would then vibrate, so could well alert you when you get a call, or text, or email with a strange, skin-crawling movement. Lovely.

Although we can see this proving useful in certain situations (and being pretty darn cool to see in practice), is it really worth the effort? Can’t we all just keep our mobiles on vibrate in our pockets?

There’s nothing in the patent about whether the tattoo would be permanent, so don’t worry, it might just be like a henna tattoo or one of those rubbish transfers you had when you were a kid.

Of course this technology (despite the fact it may not be useful to everyone) is rather exciting, and the team at Dvice hint that it could be used for all kinds of things, like different stimuli for different signals, or even different callers. Although the merging of technology and skin kind of has us a little scared, remember Terminator? The Borg? This is how it all begins…